German intel paid neo-Nazi informer $240,000

Germany's domestic intelligence agency has come under fire for paying almost a quarter of a million dollars to a neo-Nazi informer linked to a far-right terror group.

Opposition lawmakers and anti-Nazi campaigners criticized the payments made over 18 years after they were first reported Sunday by conservative weekly Bild am Sonntag.

Officials at the intelligence agency declined to comment on the report. But the head of a parliamentary committee tasked with investigating a string of murders allegedly carried out by the group says the information appears accurate.

Lawmaker Sebastian Edathy told The Associated Press on Monday that the newspaper's report matched information submitted to his committee.

Edathy said the payments totaling (EURO)180,000 ($240,000) to a man identified by the newspaper as Thomas R. were "off the scale" for an informant.